Lovelace Health Plan Selects Portico Systems

Portico’s Choreo Contract Management Solution Enables Increased Administrative Efficiency and Enhanced Provider Management Capabilities

• Press Release
• Source: Portico Systems
• On 8:07 am EDT, Thursday October 15, 2009

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Portico Systems, the leader in Integrated Provider Management solutions, has been selected by Lovelace Health Plan (LHP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ardent Health Services. LHP will leverage Portico’s Choreo Contracting Solution to transform its paper-based provider contract process to a systematic process, which enables automated and workflow driven contract administration, negotiation and communication. This is one of LHP’s first steps in creating a more seamless and efficient process for managing its provider relationships and lowering its administrative costs.

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“Through our due diligence evaluation, which involved a market landscape examination of potential vendors, we determined that Portico was the best fit for LHP,” said Rohan Reid, Chief Operating Officer, LHP. “During the selection process, Portico demonstrated its provider domain expertise and how its solution is uniquely designed for provider contract management. This was an important part of our decision. We realized that a generic contracting solution would not deliver the functionality nor the business values we want to achieve.”

The Portico Choreo solution enables LHP to focus on its provider constituents and how to create a more streamlined contracting process in order to make it easier for providers to do business with LHP. The automation of the provider contracting process will also increase administrative savings by reducing the cycle time it takes to prepare contract documents, electronically communicate these documents with their providers and provide greater overall management visibility of the process.

“We are excited by this opportunity to partner with LHP to help them modernize their provider contracting capabilities,” said Bill Pocklington, EVP of Portico Systems. “While provider contract management is the immediate focus for this initiative, LHP is investing in a provider management growth platform that will enable additional administrative and provider relationship benefits as they continue to grow in the future.”

About Lovelace Health Plan

Lovelace Health Plan offers a full portfolio of managed care plans, providing insurance coverage for more than 190,000 people in communities across New Mexico. Our health plans cover more than 2,000 employer groups and thousands of Medicare-eligible individuals and their families. Our members have access to a large, continually expanding network of doctors and health care centers, as well as a full range of benefits, including preventive programs, emergency care, urgent care, out-of-state coverage and a 24-hour Nurse Advice Line. We also offer the HEALTHY Steps program to help our members take charge of their health with health-wise information and resources.

Lovelace Health System comprises a network of acute-care hospitals, a rehabilitation hospital, the Lovelace Health Plan offering access to a wide range of health-care providers and specialists across New Mexico, S.E.D. Medical Laboratories, and retail pharmacy locations in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe.

About Portico Systems

Portico Systems (www.porticosys.com) offers the leading Integrated Provider Management solution for health plans. Our modular end-to-end IPM platform is the result of our exclusive focus on provider management and extensive provider network experience. Portico's platform is used by health plans to reduce administrative, medical and IT costs through automating all provider processes and interactions. Portico also delivers higher levels of provider satisfaction and member loyalty through the improvement of a health plan's provider operations. Portico Systems is a partner company of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE - News) www.safeguard.com.

Media Contact for Portico Systems
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George Robertson, 617-969-9192
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215-358-3726
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Christopher Jones
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215-358-3723
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